Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

Diving Saucer

Just as the wheel allowed greater efficiency in travel, the diving saucer of the Conshelf program offered greater efficiency in exploring the seemingly untouchable seabed. Jacques Cousteau explored these challenges of underwater habitation. He studied this to be able to consider the implications of ocean production. Being able to get real production value from the sea meant being able to get down to the seabed first. The experimenting for him began with many devices including an important aspect of exploration, the “diving saucer” that allowed travel underwater. It was clear to Cousteau that the process of supplying diver’s with the necessary equipment to be able to accomplish anything worthwhile was cumbersome. The Conshelf program explored the idea of extending time underwater to enable greater uninterrupted work shifts void of the tedious process of resurfacing. The program offered a way into the sea ecosystem and a way into utilizing the other three quarters of the earth’s surface. The resource possibilities expand into multiple fields and products. Aquaculture, energy production, and mining become more resourceful since the Conshelf program. These productions are no longer out of reach, they can be monitored and maintained like crops in Nebraska. The sea offers great advances in ways to produce food, minerals, and energy to sustain land life and reduce stress on our home.

1. James Dugan. “World Beneath the Sea”. National Geographic Magazine.
2. Jacques Cousteau, The Ocean World (New York: H.N. Abrams, 1979).